The present invention relates to ironing boards, and in particular to a system for recovering in said ironing boards the condensation water of the steam given out by steam irons used in combination with said ironing boards and usually provided with a steam boiler endowed with a water supply reservoir and connected with said iron by means of a steam supply duct.
Ironing boards known at the latest state of the art comprise a suitable support stand on which a pierced plank is located (usually a metal plank) on which a suitable steam-permeable felt is applied, onto which the item to be ironed is laid and onto which the steam iron is glided by the user.
In a first type of known ironing boards the water steam given out by the iron during the ironing operation goes through the pad felt and gets out through the plank holes dispersing in the atmosphere.
The main disadvantage of said known ironing boards consists in that the water used to generate the steam given out by the iron is dispersed in the atmosphere, thus making it necessary to fill the boiler reservoir with fresh water quite frequently. Since said filling operation is normally carried out using drinking water, rich in limestone, the latter little by little sediments in the tank and causes dangerous encrustations.
It is also known about a second type of ironing boards, in which the holes in the ironing plank do not communicate with the outside atmosphere but with a hollow space located under the ironing plank, said hollow space being connected in its turn with a steam boiler by means of an additional duct, so as to supply steam countercurrent from below to the ironing plane, and being also endowed with an air suction fan in order to keep the items to be ironed still when actuated by the user.
However, said second known type of ironing boards has, beyond the disadvantage described above which is common to all ironing boards, a further disadvantage due to the presence of condensed water on the lower side of the plank hollow space. Said water sinks the temperature of the steam aupplied countercurrent to the table, since said steam, before reaching the ironing plane, should lick up the condensed water and exchange heat with it.
The aim of the present invention is to avoid the disadvantages of known ironing boards as previously mentioned.
Such aim is reached by the present invention by means of an ironing board comprising an iron connected with a steam boiler and an ironing plank provided with a pierced upper surface and with a lower tank gathering the condensation water of said steam; said ironing board is provided with means for recovering the condensation water which is present in the tank and with means for re-circulating water from said recovery means to said steam boiler.